there was an army of
independents, including infringers and imitators, who kept up a constant
complaint against it, maintaining that its existence tended to retard
the improvement of the sewing machine and that the public suffered
thereby. In the period immediately following the termination of the
"Combination," however, only a few improvements of any importance were
made, and most of these were by the member companies.

FOOTNOTES:

[64] These included the American Magnetic Sewing Machine Co.; A.
Bartholf; Nichols and Bliss; J. A. Lerow; Woolridge, Keene, and Moore;
and A. B. Howe. _New York Daily Tribune_, Sept. 3, 1853.

[65] "Who Invented the Sewing-Machine," unsigned article in _The
Galaxy_, vol. 4, August 31, 1867, pp. 471-481.

[66] Singer has sometimes been credited as the inventor of the various
improvements covered by the patents that the Singer company purchased
and later contributed to the efforts of the Combination.

_Chapter Four_

[Illustration: Figure 38.--GIBBS' PATENT MODEL, 1857. (Smithsonian photo
45504-E.)]

Less Expensive Machines

While the "Combination" was attempting to solve the problems of patent
litigation, another problem faced the would-be home users of this new
invention. The budget limitations of the average family caused a demand
for a less expensive machine, for this first consumer appliance was a
most desirable commodity.[67]

There were many attempts to satisfy this demand, but one of the best and
most successful grew out of a young man's curiosity. James E. A. Gibbs'
first exposure to the sewing machine was in 1855 when, at the age of 24,
he saw a simple woodcut illustration of a Grover and Baker machine. The
woodcut represented only the upper part of the machine. Nothing in the
illustration indicated that more than one thread was used, and none of
the stitch-forming mechanism was visible. Gibbs assumed that the stitch
was formed with one thread; he then proceeded to imagine a mechanism
that would make a stitch with one thread. His solution was described in
his own statement:

As I was then living in a very out of the way place, far from
railroads and public conveyances of all kinds, modern improvements
seldom reached our locality, and not being likely to have my
curiosity satisfied otherwise, I set to work to see what I could
learn from the woodcut, which was not accompanied by any
description. I first discovered that the needle was